Information technology (IT) and networking is increasingly leveraging remote servers and disparate resources. Organizations often rely on internet-based IT infrastructures to serve employees and clients who may be located around the globe. A single enterprise may utilize devices (including laptops, desktops, phones, tablets, printers, etc.) located on premise, within remote data centers, and hosted at remote, third-party owned servers (“the cloud”). Consequently, managing IT infrastructure has become time consuming, labor intensive, and tedious. Additionally, many organizations are relying on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) based model for applications, content, and the like; and such this SaaS-based model does not lend itself to traditional on-premises management.
While the trend toward cloud and SaaS-based infrastructure has been effective on many fronts, it has introduced a number of challenges related to system administration and user authentication. The disparate nature of servers, devices, applications, and users has given rise to increased networking complexity, security concerns, and poor interoperability of resources. A central means of managing cloud and SaaS resources, and authenticating users for those resources may thus increase the efficiency and productivity of cloud-based IT infrastructure.